Call It An Instinct
by Old Russian Lady
Summary: AU: An innocent Nicky brings out the best in a kingpin Red.
1. Chapter 1

"Grab her purse." Red barked the order out to the man standing next to her. "No! Don't move her, then the police will know it's been tampered with!" Red commanded.

They were in the standing in the middle of a crime scene; of a murder. A murder that Red Reznikov was responsible for. She was high up in the ranks of the Russian mafia in the streets of New York City. She was respected. She was feared. And she didn't take shit from anyone.

"Get the trash bag and let's go. We've got 5 minutes before the police get here." Red said as she opened the door to let the 4 other men out of the apartment. They had just killed a woman and her husband.

Why? Because they did wrong by the mob. If you do wrong by the mob, you die. It was that simple.

They piled into their black van and left the apartment building so swiftly and cleanly that no one we know they were there. That's how they did it. That's how Red made sure it was always done.

They had two more houses to go to on the hit list. The next household had a child.

"Our next hit's got a kid. I'm glad someone scopes out these houses before we get to them." As an after thought, Red added, "Be careful with that one." As bloody as her hands were, and as responsible for such horrendous crimes as she was, Red had a soft spot for kids. She didn't have any, but always wanted to.

An hour's drive went by and they arrived at the house.

"You two: around back." Red pointed out.

"You: side gate."

Ad they all knew she went up to the front door like the boss she was wth the two strongest men flanking her side.

Once everyone was in position, she rang the door bell. A woman opened up the door.

"Are you Mrs. Jameson?" Red said smoothly.

"Yes, how can I help you?" The woman asked kindly.

Red looked to the man at her right and nodded her head. He raised his gun and shot the woman in the head. She fell backward, dead, lying in her front doorway.

"Like that." Red smirked.

"Go ahead. Remember, we are being careful with this hit, I'm going to look for the kid. Find the husband, you know what to do." Red explained to the man on her left.

Less than 3 seconds later she heard a gun shot.

"Guess you found him." She said to no one in particular. She continued searching the house.

Red ran into one of the men in a hallway up stairs. "Anyone find the kid?"

"Not yet, boss. We are still looking."

"Well look harder."

"Boss, what are we going to do with it?"

"We are not going to do anything. I am going to explain what has happened and send the kid somewhere else. Children have nothing to do with their parents mistakes."

"I'll be sure to tell my kids that."

"You do that. Your kids of all need to hear it." Red said said smartly.

"We will go down stairs and look some more."

"Good." And Red walked into a bedroom once more. This bedroom appeared to be a child's room based on the twin sized bed. And a girl's room based on the decor.

"Hello?" Red said in a voice that no one would expect to come from a cold blooded murderer.

"It's ok. You can come out, you're safe. Your parents are downstairs." Red said not thinking that these words would be believable to a child who just heard her parents die of gun shots in their house, but also not knowing what else to say.

Red must have sounded convincing because out from underneath the bed, crawled a young girl, who brushed off her clothes as she stood up as tall as she could and said, "Those aren't my parents."

"Oh." Red mumbled, a little taken aback and not knowing quite what to say to that.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Red added.

"I know." The girl said so confidently that Red was a little surprised.

"You know?" Is what came out of Red's mouth faster than she could think. "Did you even hear those loud bangs?"

"Yes." The girl said. "And yeah, I don't know why but I know. Maybe it's one of those extincts."

"Instincts?"

"Uh-huh." The girl nodded. "And what was that loud bang?" The girl said so innocently that Red knew she had to be careful with her wording.

Red just stared at her and she stared back.

"Your parents just went to the store for a few minutes." Red stumbled out, not knowing what to say to this child.

"They aren't my parents." The small child repeated. "Those are the people that babysit me." And the girl broke eye contact with Red and looked at the floor and added quietly, "They are mean."

"How?" Red said, sounding so concerned and surprised at herself for feeling this way genuinely towards this child.

"They just are." The girl said even quieter and Red knew she shouldn't be asking these questions.

"Ok." Red said, understanding that the girl wasn't going to explain further.

"Well," Red said a little cheerfully, "I can take you home if you'd like." She expected the girl to say no and call Red a 'stranger' or something of the sort.

"Ok." The girl said in a tone that mirrored her confidence that Red wouldn't hurt her. The girl's mood changed instantly at the change of topic. "It's not much better there either, though."

"But it is your home, right?"

"Yes."

"Are your parents home? I don't want to leave you there by yourself."

"It's just my mother. She should be home by now, I think."

"Alright, let's go then."

Red walked several steps ahead of the young girl throughout the house to make sure those bodies were gone. She didn't want the girl to see them, especially if she didn't even know what the gunshots were. Luckily, the other mobsters had taken care of it all.

Once they reached the front yard, Red turned around to the girl and bent down so that they were eye level. "I'm going to go talk to my friends over there for a moment. Wait here would you?"

"Ok."

"Alright listen up." Red said to the group of mobsters once she was out of ear shot of the girl. "This girl doesn't know we killed these two. When I found out she didn't even know what a those 'loud bangs' were I just said they went to the store or something. They were her babysitters. I asked her if she wanted to be taken home and she said yes. So her and I will ride in the second van. You guys go back to the shop. I'm not sure how long I'll be, but I'm just dropping her and going. Got it?"

"Yes, boss." They all said at the same time.

"Ok, let's go." Red said with such authority.

Red walked back over to the girl. "Are you ready to go home?"

"No." The girl answered quite frankly. "But I have to."

"We are riding in the second van."

"Ok."

And they walked to the van and climbed in.

"Where do you live?"

"Just in the neighborhood over."

"Oh, so not too far."

The girl gave directions and the driver listened carefully, straining his ear for that small voice.

"That one, with the blue mailbox." The girl pointed.

Red and the girl got out of the car and Red walked her up to the front door.

Out of absolute no where the girl looked up at Red with tears in her eyes and said "I don't want to go."

"What?" Red looked down at her, confused. She crouched down and looked the girl in the eyes. "What is it?"

"I can't. I don't want to go in there. My mother hates me. She's mean to me." The girl started to sob.

She had no idea why, but Red's heart was touched by this girl's emotions.

"Can't I just go with you?" The girl pleaded.

"But you don't even know me." Red said, a little dumbfounded.

"But I feel like I do. It's those extincts, 'member?"

"Instincts." Red corrected softly.

"Please. It's gotta be better than this." Her crying just continued.

"I'm sorry, but you can't come with me." Red was finding it difficult to say this to the little girl, which Red thought was odd, considering she didn't know this kid.

"Well can you come back tomorrow?"

"What for?" Red was a little confused.

"To make sure I'm alright." The girl sobbed.

"And why wouldn't you be alright?"

"She's mean to me." The girl repeated her previous statement.

Red vaguely understood what was going on.

"Ok, ok. Calm down." Red tried to get the girl to relax before she went inside.

Once the girl was somewhat calm, Red said simply, "I'll come back tomorrow." Red had no idea why she was agreeing to this. But she knew it felt right.

"Please. But it's gotta be at night so my mother doesn't know. Can you come at night?"

"Yes, I can come here tomorrow night."

"I'll open my window so you can come in."

"What?" Now this was just getting ridiculous.

"I'm on the second story so you can just climb the ladder and come in through the window." The girl said this in a tone that seemed like she thought this was perfectly normal.

"I'm not going to sneak into your bedroom window. That's crazy." Red said, almost forgetting she was talking to a child.

"But..you saved me from my babysitters. Aren't you going to save me from my mother too?"

"Kid, you're talking like I'm a superhero or something."

"But you are. You saved me."

Red didn't know what to say. But she did know what she felt: she was looking at this girl, hearing the conversation being had and realizing how serious this girl was about Red sneaking into her window to make sure her mother hadn't 'hurt' her too bad, which Red didn't even know what kind of 'mean' this girl's mother was, although she felt protective of her either way. Red had no idea what it was or why it was, her head told her it was ludicrous and yet her heart told her to just listen to the girl.

"Ok. I'll be back tomorrow night, ready to make sure you are alright." Red finally agreed and instantly knew she made the right decision when she felt her heart warm up her entire body as she saw the girl's face go from a frown to a face with a grin from ear to ear at Red's words.

"I've got a superhero." The girl said so innocently as she hugged Red, her tears vanishing from her eyes. Red couldn't help but feel protective of this girl.

"What's your name?" The girl asked, both realizing that they didn't know that detail about each other.

"My name is Red." She said warmly.

"I'm Nicky." She smiled.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Nicky."

"Ok." She said so cheerfully and went into her house.

Red walked backed to the van trying to figure out just exactly what and why she agreed to that. The topic was brought up between the driver and her on the way back to the shop.

"I heard the whole thing." The mobster said once Red got into the car.

"Oh?"

"Why the fuck would you do that, boss?"

"I don't know." Red said, being completely honest. "Call it an instinct."


	2. Chapter 2

They all finally arrived back at the shop and they discussed the events of the day.

"You three went to the third hit?"

"Yes, boss." They replied simultaneously.

"How'd it go?"

"Successful."

"Good."

"How did it go with that girl?"

"Her name is Nicky." Red replied a little defensively, which surprised them all a little, including herself. "It went fine, I guess. She wants me to go see her tomorrow night."

"Why is that?"

"She doesn't fee safe in her house and she wants me to make sure she is alright. She wants me to come in her house through her bedroom window."

Some of them laughed.

Red gave them a cold stare.

They stopped laughing.

"She sees me as a superhero for taking her away from those people we got rid of yesterday, which she still doesn't know we killed."

They were silent for a minute.

"And I'm hoping she won't ever know find out." Red said quietly, more so to herself than anyone else.

"So are you going tomorrow? To her house?"

"Yes, I am."

The started laughing again. She gave them a stare again. They stopped again.

"Look, I don't know what it is, but Nicky seems to see something in me that she needs. Perhaps it's a nice and good mother figure, I don't know. But whatever it is, I'm willing."

"Ok, boss." Some of them said.

The next day was full of more murder or "taking care of business" as they called it. So many people thought they could get away with snitching on the mob, oh how wrong they were.

At his particular hit, a man was being difficult- too difficult.

"Bring him to the garage." Red decided she wasn't going to be very merciful.

The men carried the would be screaming man if the tape wasn't over his mouth, to their van and drove off back towards their headquarters.

In the garage were all kinds of things used for torture, all kinds of weapons.

"Tie him up." Red stood in the center of the garage and watched the men that worked for her tie the man's wrists together and then tie his wrists up to a long bar so he was hanging from the bar with his knees bent and just barely touching the floor. The man had been punched in the face several times and had his torso kicked several times before they left from his house so he had blood dripping from his face in some spots and some blood drying up in some spots.

"So," Red began, "are you going to tell me why you thought it was a good idea to spend some of our money on your house payment?" She said this cold and deadly.

"I'm sorry, I know I should have given you the money-your money- I know. But, but my house would have been foreclosed on, we missed our payment and they threatened to kick us out. I've been out of work for a month trying to settle my debt with the mob. It was my only choice. I have a family...my wife and kids, what was I suppose to do?"

Red looked at the man to her left and nodded. The man walked over to their victim and punched him with all of his might it seemed like, in the face.

"That was a stupid response. You know what you should have done regardless. Did you not think that something like this would not have happened to you? If not, then you're very foolish. Even so, you're very foolish." Red looked to the man again and he repeated the punch.

"I don't play nice if you're going to go against what I tell you." Red walked up to the man and whispered in his ear very cruelly, "I hope you're learning that."

Red walked back over to the the man who seemed to be her second hand, "Now, you know what to do. Don't kill him until you have to. And when you're hurting, don't play nice either, remember how important this deal was."

"I understand, boss. You have my word that he will suffer long and deeply for this."

"Good. Now I'll be back, it's getting late. I don't know when but I will be."

And Red, leaving that garage responsible for the torture and murder of a man that night, and countless before him, headed to make sure that that little girl Nicky was safe and sound.

Red drove to Nicky's house but was hesitant to get out of the car.

"This is crazy." Red said out loud to herself. But got out anyway.

Just like she said there would be, there was a ladder leading up to Nicky's room.

Red sighed deeply as she reached the ladder. Then she began to climb. She got to the window and lightly tap it with her knuckle. It opened after a minute and the curtains were slid open.

"You came!" Nicky whispered both excited and relieved.

"Of course I did. You wanted me to, right?" Red looked at Nicky most sincerely.

"Yes." Nicky said innocently.

"And so I did." Red smiled.

Nicky smiled back.

"So may I come in?" Red asked politely, as though she had been invited to a dinner party.

"Course." And Nicky opened the window more and the curtain more.

Red climbed in and looked around. Her room was very cute for a young girl. Pink walls with a castle painted on one of them. Her room was princess themed, quite fitting. Red could see Nicky as her little princess.

The entire time Red was looking around, Nicky was just looking up at her, beaming. Red looked down at her and noticed this. Nicky must have really thought of Red as something special. If Red was being honest, Red felt this sort of maternal instinct that told her that it was ok. And made her feel like Nicky was really important to her.

"So are you alright?"

"Today I am."

"Where is your mother?"

"She went out for the night. She told me she would be back really late."

"She just left you home alone?"

"Yup. She does this all of the time."

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetheart." And Red gave her a half hug.

"It's like I don't even have a mom." They were silent for a moment.

Red bent down so they were eye level and rested her hands on Nicky's little shoulders.

"Nicky, if you'll have me, I'll be your mother." Red said, making sure her eyes showed nothing but the sudden love and care she felt for this little girl.

"You will? You'd be that for me?" Nicky's voice got so high and her little eyes sort of started to water at this wonderful news. Red thought she would have been jumping up and down if Red didn't still have her hands on her shoulders.

And Red felt moved to say, "Sweetheart, I'd be anything for you."

Nicky almost knocked Red over with her hug. Red laughed a little bit, surprised but pleased.

After some time talking about anything and everything, Red said it was time for her to go. She tucked Nicky in.

"When will you be back? I don't want you to go!" Nicky said sadly and Red's heart was touched.

"I'll be back the day after tomorrow. How's that?" Red asked kindly.

"So that's 1 sleep?" Nicky asked.

"Well you haven't slept yet tonight so that's 2."

"Ok, 2 more sleeps." Nicky said so innocently that Red felt her heartstrings being tugged on a bit.

"2 sleeps." Red repeated.

After looking back at the little girl all snug in bed, Red left out the window. Red got to the car and drove away, looking at that bedroom window as long as she could and whispered, "I'll see you in 2 sleeps my sweet Nicky."


	3. Chapter 3

Thunder boomed and lighting flashed as the storm outside little Nicky's window became more and more aggressive.

It was 2 sleeps later and Red was supposed to be coming tonight.

Nicky looked out her window, a bolt of lightning darted across the sky and thunder erupted from the sky down into Nicky's ears so loudly that Nicky dashed back in bed and pulled the covers over her face, shaking in fear. There was no way that Red would make it tonight, Nicky started to accept even though this is one of those nights where she needed the comfort of a mother.

How could she sleep with the storm raging outside, she was frightened. Nicky wanted Red. She wanted her soft touch and her kind words. As if it was magic, Nicky heard a rapping on the window.

"No way!" Nicky squealed, jumping out of bed, more excited than she ever had been in her life, to find Red soaking wet outside of the window. Nicky opened it as fast as she could and Red climbed in.

"I'll get you a towel." And Nicky ran out of her room down the hall. Red was shivering.

"Here." Nicky wrapped the towel around Red as best she could which was kind of pointless considering how small Nicky was compared to her. Red felt warmer at the kind gesture though.

"Let me get you some of my mom's pajama pants and a t shirt." Nicky darted out of the room again.

"You're very kind." Red said to Nicky as she left the room, knowing Nicky couldn't hear her.

Nicky came back and pointed to the direction of the bathroom so Red could get dried off and changed. When she came back into the room, Red found Nicky under the blanket.

"Hey." Red sat down on the bed. "Are you under there?"

Nicky peeked her head out from the blanket slowly. A smile played at her lips.

"Are you under there?" Nicky repeated.

"Under where?" Red looked a little confused.

Nicky giggled a small girlish laugh. "You said 'underwear'!"

"Oh, my…" Red smiled and put her hand on Nicky's head, tousling her brown curls.

"You came." Nicky looked up at Red.

"I did."

"But there is a storm."

"There is."

"Didn't you want to stay dry?"

"I'm dry now." Red reassured the little girl in front of her.

"It must have been a lot of trouble though because of the rain and thunder and lightning." Nicky sounded frightened as she was reminded of all of the uncomfortable noises rumbling just outside.

"Well, I must admit that the rain did make it a little slippery trying to go up the latter, but lucky for us, I haven't been afraid of the thunder and lightning for quite some time now." Red smiled at the little girl in front of her.

"I'm scared of the lightning and thunder." Nicky shuddered as a bolt flew across the sky followed by a clash of thunder that sounded like Zeus was angry.

Immediately and without hesitation, Red grabbed Nicky, pulled her close and gave her comforting hug.

"You know, Nicky, you don't need to be afraid of what is going on outside." Red whispered.

"I was afraid, but not anymore since you're here. You're my superhero, member?" Nicky looked up at Red who wore the biggest smile.

"Oh, yes. That's right, I am, aren't I?"

"Uh huh."

"Well if that's the case, then I think I should be giving you these." And Red pulled from her bag a smaller bag. She handed it to Nicky and Nicky's jaw dropped at the gesture.

"What is this? Is this a present?" Nicky seemed to be in shock.

"Of course." Red smiled.

"I never got one before is all, and it's just…wow!"

Red was dumbfounded. "No birthday presents of any for Christmas?"

"Mom never got me anything as a surprise like this." Nicky sounded like she was going to cry.

"Well why don't you open it." Red suggested kindly.

Nicky looked up at her and smiled from ear to ear as she pulled out the cutest little teddy bear Nicky had ever seen.

"Oh, it is so cute!" Nicky gave the bear a very tight hug.

Red's heart swelled with the warmth this little child gave her.

"Thank you so much! I love it. I'm gonna name it Red and every time I miss you, I'm gonna cuddle and hug Red."

"That's very sweet, my girl. But that is something I wanted to talk to you about. My life outside of this room is rough and scary."

"So youre really are a super hero?" Nicky beamed.

What was Red to tell her? Yes, she did get the bad guys but she was an eviler person then them?

"Sort of, honey. But it isn't a good idea that I keep coming here to see you. I would hate for you to get mixed up in anything I have going on out there."

'You're not going to see me anymore?" Nicky felt her little heart breaking.

'I'm sorry my sweet girl, but I can't." Red felt the big heart she had for Nicky start to split into two.

"But..but you said you could protect me from everything." Nicky's bottom lip began to tremble.

"And I can, and I will." Red pulled Nicky close to her side so they were cuddled in her bed. "This is me protecting you from everything. Trust me when I saw this isn't the last time you'll see me." Red kissed the top of her little head.

"It's not?" Nicky felt so hopeful.

"I have a feeling that we will meet again. Whether it is for good reasons or bad ones, we will be together again. And I promise you, I will always protect you, even when that time comes. I'll always be there for you and I'll always love you." Nicky received another kiss on her forehead.

"I'll always love you too, Mommy. But how do you know I will see you again. Is it another one of those extincts?"

"Yes, my sweet Nicky, call it an instinct."


End file.
